Must tell the folks who started TAA with a bunch of civilianized ex WW2 C-47s that they were wrong. Especially given that they started passenger ops. from a tin shed at Laverton! They should have waited for a new terminal then started with the shiny new DC-4s that they did in fact get not a long time after start-up. Having got the ¡°proof of concept¡± they went on to be first in the world (outside US) in getting the Convair 240, then the Viscount, Electra, 727 and DC-9, on and on in excellence until ¡°smart¡± businessmen got involved and stuffed it royally.
There is no suggestion that the OZJET operations will not be safe. As to whether they get the marketing mix right, time and the marketplace (and hopefully not needed the ACCC) will tell. TAA started with the phrase ¡°one fare for all-the lowest¡± which was not widely agreed with at that time when the likes of ANA (a QF style powerfully entrenched operator) were only selling first class.
The whole point of deregulation is that the market decides. That is a wonderful and long-overdue step forward. Wartime aside, all pilots and cabin-crew are volunteers. If they don¡¯t like it they¡¯ll leave and go on to greener pastures. As with the SLF. For every peoples Express that don't make it there's the odd Southwest that does.
I once flew with a great outfit in Eurpoe that started with a clapped out Caravelle and the pilots wives as cabin crew. That¡¯s the stuff of dreams. Safe? Yes. Business risky? Hell yes!. Fun and a creator of new jobs and concepts? Sure thing.
I am not an investor, will never fly with them and may never even see one of their aircraft. But as I hope we all do I wish them:
Good luck.
And, lest the odd reader hasn\'t seen this quote which I\'ll bet has supported more than one of we fools who have started airlines.....
\"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.\"
Theodore Roosevelt